A Detroit-area man kept driving on a road trip from Arizona to Michigan even after he discovered his front-seat passenger was dead, media reports said on Wednesday.

The 62-year-old man told police he touched the sleeping 31-year-old woman, whom he described as a friend, as he was driving through Oklahoma or Texas on Monday and found her cold, the Detroit Free Press reported, quoting police.

The man told police he kept driving because based on Internet research he did on his phone, he thought he had 48 hours before he needed to take the woman to a morgue, according to the Free Press. Police said he should have immediately called for help.

Also traveling in the man's 2004 Ford Econoline van was his 92-year-old mother, the Free Press said.

Another Detroit media report quoted police as saying they believe the woman who died had taken a number of oxycodone painkillers.

Neither the man, his mother, nor the dead passenger was identified. It is not clear if he will face charges, the Free Press said.